25 years ago

Columbine massacre copycats are tried as juveniles

By Chad Monterichard, Editor

According to prosecutors, three students from Paradise who were arrested last June for plotting to murder several teachers and classmates are lucky to be charged in juvenile court. …

Lead prosecutor and Assistant District Attorney Leonard Goldkind said the boys – two of them 12 and one 13 – would face life in prison as adults, but now face a maximum of 25 years in prison, and even that sentence is unlikely.

The three boys, whose names are not being released by police, are said to have written down the names of teachers and students they planned to kill in high school four years later. Although no weapons were found, the boys said they knew where they could eventually get them.

Their arrest came after a classmate told a parent about the boys’ plans and the parent then filed a report with Paradise police…

A flood of phone calls from the news programs CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN flooded the phone lines to Paradise. …

The incident was compared to the Littleton massacre in the spring and called a “Columbine copycat case.”

(Goldkind) added that he was not looking forward to the trial and hoped to “really find out” what drove the children to their murder plans.

“I want to find out if these are just teenagers fantasizing or if it’s something more serious,” said District Attorney Mike Ramsey. “We don’t want to give up the chance to rehabilitate these kids for the sake of tough charges.”

— Paradise Post, August 17, 1999

50 years ago

Election to city council approved

Since there weren’t enough protests, county supervisors voted Tuesday to call a new election so ridge voters can decide whether to create a town called Paradise. The vote will be combined with the Nov. 5 general election.

This action brought to a close the almost two years of work of a volunteer committee that wanted to put the question of incorporation into the municipality to a referendum. The two previous attempts were never voted on. …

The decisions were taken unanimously and assumed a population of about 20,000 inhabitants within the proposed city limits. …

— Paradise Post, August 16, 1974

75 years ago

UC expert visits Durham Discovery Site

DURHAM — Grading work on a property about a mile west of Durham High School has uncovered an ancient burial site. An estimated 50 to 100 graves have been found so far. Significant numbers of human and Native American artifacts have been found in the wake of earthmoving equipment.

Mortars found in the area, in which Indians had ground flour, beads, shell jewelry, pieces of flint, lots of ash and chunks of charcoal, are unequivocal proof that this was once a large and popular Indian camp.

The land is now owned by OE Tracy of Chico and Durham, who is grading the property to create pasture for the horses he raises on his ranch. It was once part of the Pratt Ranch. Before that it was part of the old Durham family estate, one of California’s original land grants…

— Enterprise Record, August 22, 1949

100 years ago

River beach resort near Sac. Ave.

In the state park on the Sacramento River, near the end of Sacramento Avenue, a real, first-class and modern bathhouse and boat dock is being built by CM Tyler of Chico.

According to Tyler, he has long been aware that this popular bathing and boating resort is in dire need of respectable facilities to entertain the many visitors who frequent the riverside beach.

Tyler is building a 16-by-50-foot bathhouse that will house a candy and snack stand, and will have separate changing rooms for men, women, and children. He plans to make the building complete and comfortable for this purpose…

A boat launch will also be established where boats will be looked after and protected. Tyler says that no fewer than 20 Chico residents have expressed a desire to keep a motorboat on the river, but will not do so until adequate protection is provided. Such protection is one of Tyler’s plans.

MB Pratt, State Forester and Red Bluff and Riverside staff, were here yesterday… and were very excited about the prospects. They said they were convinced that the resort would soon become one of the attractions of this part of the state.

— The Chico Enterprise, August 18, 1924

125 years ago

A warship named “Chico”

This is what our people will demand

This morning at the Board of Trustees meeting, Secretary White read the following resolution, which speaks for itself and was unanimously adopted by the Board of Trustees:

WHEREAS the United States Department of the Navy is constructing a number of new warships, including the class of gunboats…

WHEREAS it is the established custom … to name gunboats after cities and towns throughout the United States, worthy of the special honor of being selected for the naming of a ship of war, and that its name is thus … carried to the most distant point of the earth …

WHEREAS the city of Chico is one of the most important towns in Northern California, and has a population of about 4,000 people…has distinguished itself for patriotism…by raising a company of volunteers for service in the Spanish War…is the seat of one of the normal schools of California…and is the home of a distinguished citizen, General John Bidwell…

Resolved by the Board of Trustees at Chico, in regular session … to name one of the new gunboats of the United States Navy … by giving to the said vessel and her christening the name “CHICO”; …

— Chico Enterprise Weekly, August 18, 1899

150 years ago

An Eggstrodinary Egg

John Guill brought us a double egg the other day. It is not an egg with a double yolk, but an egg within an egg – the outer one very large and the inner one as large as an ordinary hen’s egg. The shell, white and yolk of both eggs are complete and perfect. The shell of the inner egg is just as hard and thick as the shell of the egg that covers it. They are hen’s eggs.

— The Northern Enterprise, August 21, 1874